


Accident

by Arsoemon



Series: Younglings [3]
Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Babies, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Baby angst, Family, Gen, Short One Shot, Tiny Thief Verse, after school special vibes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22889476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arsoemon/pseuds/Arsoemon
Summary: Sojiro’s tiny thieves learn a valuable lesson about making mistakes
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Sakura Sojiro, Kitagawa Yusuke & Sakura Sojiro, Kurusu Akira & Sakura Sojiro, Persona 5 Protagonist & Sakura Sojiro, Sakura Futaba & Sakura Sojiro
Series: Younglings [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581940
Comments: 6
Kudos: 56





	Accident

It's nap time at the Sakura residence. Sojiro had made his usual rounds from Goro to Futaba to Yusuke then to Akira to gently tuck each one in and assure them he would be back from the store before they woke up, and it had only taken two confirmations to get Yusuke to settle down this time. Things were going well, and it seemed to be business as usual. Normally, Sojiro would be back before any of them woke up. But it's hard to plan for accidents.

Akechi is stirred from sleep by the soft sniveling of someone crying. He sits up, rubbing his eyes, and finds Akira clutching the blanket and staring down at his place on the futon. "Akira?" The other boy startles when he hears his name. "What's wrong?" His crying grows louder as he points down at where he'd been lying down. Akechi can see a spot, nothing too large, but it's still noticeable.

As he stands, the blanket pulls and wakes Futaba. "Sojiro?" She looks around. As she puts on her glasses, she notices Akechi staring at a crying Akira. She hops up and moves to hug Akira but ends up tripping over Yusuke. Both boys reach to help her up as Yusuke groans awake, a Futaba foot to the back of the neck more than enough to disturb his sleep.

He looks around, slowly taking in the commotion until he sees the red circles under Akira's eyes. "Akira, what'th wrong?"

"Don't come here!" Akira holds up his hands.

"Just a accident," Akechi whispers solemnly.

"What do I do? Sojiro will be mad," voicing the thought seems to make him feel even worse as he begins to cry even more.

"We can make it okay," Yusuke pushes the pillows and blankets to the side and takes up the mat as best he can. "Ith he home yet?" They all freeze to listen for motion downstairs.

"Doesn't sounds like it," Akechi notes as Yusuke begins to head toward the stairs. "But what are you gonna do?"

"We can wath it. It'th not a big acthide-woah!"

"Yusuke!" They all run—carefully—down the stairs and reach him mere seconds after Sojiro does. He slowly pushes himself up and freezes when he sees the man there.

He bursts into tears. "I'm thorry!"

Sojiro used to wonder what about him makes children cry. Takemi often points out how gruff and grumpy he always seems, so he figured that was it. But it doesn't account for the fact that they seem to love to be around him most other times. It took Sae pointing out that aside from Futaba, Sojiro knew very little about their previous home lives; it's probably not so much him as it is the role he's filling. The thought is only half comforting though.

"Hey, calm down," he says as gently as he can. "Are you alright?" Yusuke nods but continues to cry. "Why are you apologizing?"

"I juth wanna make it okay," he whispers.

Sojiro looks to the other little ones for an explanation. They all seem hesitant to speak up.

"Well..." Akechi starts. "There was a... accident... before you got back."

Sojiro looks to Yusuke sympathetically. "Did you have an accident?"

Yusuke glances at Akira before looking down. "Yeth."

Sojiro sighs in relief. "Oh Yusuke..."

"He didn't!" Akira steps forward. "It was me." Sojiro knows the boy has a bit of a hero complex, but he knows he’s telling the truth from the disheveled state of his clothes; he'd tried to clean himself up afterward. He looks into Akira’s still-watery eyes and finds that normal rebellion along with the less normal but just as familiar fear.

"Yusuke, why did you say yes?"

"Becauthe..."

"I was scared," Akira interjects again. "I don't want you to hate me." Those rebellious eyes start to overflow again.

"Why do you think I could ever hate you?"

"I'm a big boy, and big boys are supposed to be good."

"Akira," he struggles to bury his questions and judgements about the boy's upbringing. "Big boys and girls make mistakes all the time, and it will take a lot of very big mistakes to take away from your goodness. You're not even in trouble for this. Yusuke," the boy flinches when he looks at him. "You didn't need to lie about this. I don't want any of you to lie to me about anything; I can't help you if I don't know what the problem is. And no matter what, I could never hate you. Any of you, you understand?" They all nod. "I love you and always will, and I don't want you to forget that. Now, anybody who needs a hug, bring it in." They all smush into his arms. "Come on, I think it's about snack time."

**Author's Note:**

> In case anyone is curious, they have animal crackers, apple slices, and juice for snack time. And yes, Takemi does make sure Yusuke doesn’t have a concussion. Thanks for reading!


End file.
